I looked at the ballots, seemed easy enough. The homeless people that were given free cigarettes and bussed in by Gore might have had a hard time with them though I guess. At least these kids didn't-
IN THE NEWS…“Kids Find Contested Ballot to be Child's Play,” The Shreveport Times, by Don Walker
“It's a ballot that perplexed Florida voters but was no match for the wits of first- and fourth-graders at Stockwell Elementary School in Bossier City.
“Disillusioned and upset by the lingering chaos of this week's presidential election, fourth-grade teacher Lisa Burns pulled a sample of the controversial Palm Beach County, Fla., ballot off the Internet on Thursday. She then put her class of 9- and 10-year-olds to the test. ‘I gave them a ballot and had them take a blue marker to vote for Al Gore and a red marker to vote for George Bush. Then I had them put their name on the bottom of the ballot and turn it in.’
“Turns out this election was mere child's play. Not one of the 22 students present in class Thursday was confused by the ballot. Each one was marked without error.
“Well, if a fourth-grader could do it, how about a first-grader? Down the hall in Stacey Robinson's class, the ballot was handed out to 6- and 7-year-olds. Robinson used an overhead projector to point out Gore's name, then asked the class of 24 students to find his bubble on the punch-card ballot.
“‘It wasn't a vote,’ Robinson said. ‘I just wanted to experiment to see if they could find the correct bubble.’
“When the ballots were turned in, 19 of the first-graders marked the correct bubble for Gore, three picked Buchanan's bubble, one picked Bush's and one marked the bottom bubble for the ‘Natural Law’ party.
“‘If a first-grader can choose the correct bubble, there's no legitimate claim. Anyone could have done it,’ Robinson said. ‘A grown adult who took any time at all could find it.’
“Still, even in a first-grade classroom, vote tabulations were the subject of protest and controversy. ‘I thought we were voting,’ Brady McCoy, 6, of Haughton grumbled after he was told to find and punch the ‘Gore’ bubble. ‘I wanted to vote for George Bush!’”
